Toojay's Hits Spot In This Busy Season

Thanksgiving planning guide - Family dining

It's the season for holiday shopping and every parent knows what that means: Too many nights when you rush home to fix dinner after trying to squeeze in some holiday errands.

Well, if you're in the vicinity of Colonial Marketplace, try Toojay's restaurant and delicatessen. Toojay's serves soups and sandwiches delicatessen style, but also features an extensive dinner menu. And here's a nice touch: If you feel like having something from the lunch menu at dinner, that's fine. When you're seated, the host gives you a breakfast-lunch menu and the dinner menu.

We went with one kid in tow, the other was sick and home with a babysitter. Being in a Thanksgiving mood, I opted for the traditional turkey dinner ($8.99), which Toojay's prepares year-round. My husband, who hails from a red-meat-eating clan, ordered the New York strip steak ($11.99).

The kids' menu includes hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken fingers as well as spaghetti with garlic bread. The kids' dishes come with fries, but parent's can substitute any vegetable of the day, mashed potatoes, cole slaw or a salad for the french fries. Jack opted for mashed potatoes. For drinks, kids can have juice or milk.

All was going swimmingly. My husband and I got the soup of the day (tomato dill) and the warm rye bread helped tide us over. Unfortunately, it took 20 minutes for our food to arrive. The waiter was good-natured and kept checking on us. The soup and bread had taken the edge off my appetite, but Jack was getting increasingly hungry. I asked the waiter to bring out his food if it came up first; unfortunately, it didn't.

Instead, he brought all our food out at once, but clearly something was amiss in the kitchen on that night. The steak, which had been ordered medium, came out rare. The baked potato that came with it was cold. My turkey dinner was still hot, however, and Jack's food was quite hot - but he had been served fries, not mashed potatoes. After I reminded the waiter about the mashed potatoes, he scurried off to the kitchen to fetch some.

Despite the mixups, the food got good marks. The steak was tender and good, and my turkey dinner was almost like homemade. The turkey was sliced thin, but it was tender. The mashed potatoes were worth writing home about - they even had small lumps in them! The stuffing was fine; a tad too much sage for my tastes, but I like my stuffing mild.

The restaurant was nearly full on this particular Sunday night. On other visits, I have spotted a number of families with kids at lunch and dinner. At first glance, the restaurant may not appear exactly kid-friendly. And despite the slow service on my recent visit, parents can count on lots of food options for kids.

Our long wait dampened my enthusiasm for Toojay's, but it remains a good option for harried shoppers with kids. My advice? with squirmers in tow, order a sandwich and soup or something that requires little preparation.